Bruins legend John Bucyk coveted 1970 Stanley Cup more than anyone

By Mike LoftusThe Patriot Ledger

Thursday

May 7, 2020 at 3:42 PMMay 7, 2020 at 4:08 PM

If there’s anyone who hasn’t seen The Goal by now, or anyone who just never gets tired of watching it, there’ll be plenty of chances to see Bobby Orr’s airborne celebration of his Stanley Cup-winning goal when programming to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bruins’ 1970 championship kicks in this weekend.

But what about the goal that made The Goal possible? Anyone remember anything about that one?

Nope. Not even the guy who scored it.

“I just remember it was a very important goal, because it tied the game, and gave us a chance to win the Cup in Boston,” said the goal-scorer, John Bucyk, during a conference call with local media on Wednesday. “If we’d have lost, we’d have gone back to St. Louis, and who knows what would have happened?”

Few would have bet that the Bruins, after mowing down the Blues by a combined score of 16-4 over Games 1-3 of the series, would wilt after one measly loss, but Bucyk had no interest in finding out. And while nearly all agree that Orr, the 22-year-old, ahead-of-his-time superstar, was the most appropriate player to score the Cup winner, it was no less appropriate for Bucyk to do something important on that May 10, 1970 afternoon at Boston Garden. His 11th goal of that 14-game post-season, which made it a 3-3 game with 6:32 left in regulation, did the trick.

Bucyk, two days short of his 35th birthday when Orr scored the winner, had been a Bruin since he was acquired in a trade with Detroit for goalie Terry Sawchuk (both are enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame) prior to 1957-58. Unbeknownst to him, he was soon to fit the description of “long-suffering” far too well. A consistent 20-goal scorer who never dipped below 16, Bucyk earned the distinction of being the best player on the six-team NHL’s worst team: They failed to qualify for the playoffs for eight straight years from 1960-67.

So of course Buyck didn’t want the Blues to think they had any chance of coming back to win that 1970 series. He’d waited long enough, and didn’t want to take any chances.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” Bucyk said. “We were up 3-0 in games, but if they’d have won that game, it could have given them some extra energy, could have changed the series.”

That edition of the Bruins, which developed into contenders behind back-to-back Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) winners Orr and Derek Sanderson, plus the addition of three Top 6 forwards in Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield in 1967-68, ended up changing the perception of Bucyk’s career. Skating regularly with holdover John McKenzie on a No. 2 line centered by newcomer Stanfield, and joining Orr, Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield on a seemingly unstoppable power play, Bucyk had the first two of seven 30-goal campaigns in 1967-68 and ‘69-70, a string that included a 51-goal, 116-point season in 1970-71.

Harry Sinden, who coached the Bruins from 1966-67 through the ’69-70 Cup season, called Bucyk “one of the sensational left wings of his time … Bobby Hull and maybe Frank Mahovlich (were) ahead of him a little bit — but not by much.”

Bucyk is pretty much unchallenged as far as left wings — and players, period — in Bruins history. Over 21 seasons (tied with defenseman Raymond Bourque for most in franchise history), he leads everyone with 545 goals, and ranks second to Bourque in games (1,436), assists (794) and points (1,339).

What Bucyk always wanted, however, was to be known as a champion, so he was more excited than anyone in the late 1960s “to see the team changing. You could see the wheel turning with (Orr) coming, then (Sanderson), then the big trade with Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield.

“You just felt that things would improve, and you were going to win the Cup, and we did it. We won it two years (1970 and ’72), and we should have won it in 1971, too … I thought we had a better team in 1971. But we did win it in 1970, and that was really probably one of the highlights of my career. It was the first time we won it (in 29 years), and we won it in Boston for our fans, who had waited a long time.”

Bucyk, the Bruins’ captain when Sinden arrived in 1966-67, was made one of three assistant captains by the new coach, but there wasn’t any doubt about who would hoist the Cup and navigate the fans who swarmed onto the Garden ice after Orr scored the 1970 winner. (He repeated that feat in 1972, albeit under less chaotic conditions, after the B’s vanquished the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.)

“Skating with the Cup was a big thrill,” he said. “I was honored, and I was very happy to do that.

“That Cup weighs 35 pounds, but at that moment, it probably felt like it weighed five pounds.”